Gladys Brewer gasped in pain just as great as the cheerleaders had suffered...but when it was over, she was delighted the effect. Even though still wearing the same baggy sweatpants, t-shirt and hoodie...it was obvious that she had not merely lost weight...but gained the sort of toned and healthy body that the cheerleaders once had. As heath and vigour suddenly burned within her, her hair became a vibrant, glowing chestnut instead of the limp, mousy brown it had been. She cried out "Oh, son of a bitch!" as energy filled her once limp muscles, and she suddenly wanted to do areobics for an hour. She looked down at the platter of chicken firied steak, mashed potatoes and three extra deserts...and was sick to her stomach. She suddenly wanted a small cob salad and a diet coke...
The same changes were happening to the cheerleaders...but in reverse. Hair became limp and dull. Glowing tans faded to pale, palid blubber dimpled with cellulite. Muscles weakened, causing the girls to tire rapidly. Their shrieks of horror became moans and puffing grunts of exertion. Their fashionable clothes burst and turned to shreads. But worst of all...they became hungry. Once well-moderated appitites grew with their bodies, untill all six cheerleaders suddenly felt like they were starving to death. What had they had for breakfast? Fruit? A Muffin? Nothing at all? The sudden desire...no, NEED...for a proper lumberjack breakfast filled them, and all of them were suddenly waddling to nearby chairs, gasping and wheezing as they just had to sit down. Their bodies and minds suddenly overcome with the idea that diet and excersize was just too much work.
Biff ran up to Sarah McMillan and gaped at the swollen, palid girl who would have tipped the scales at a shade over four-hundred pounds. Still, through the fleshy jowls and three flabby chins, it was obviously still Sarah.
"Babe? Oh shit! Babe, are you...Sarah, are you..."
"Biff..." she gasped with exertion "...I'm just...so...hungry..." as she cast covetious eyes on the lunch line, and the neatly ordered plates of chocolete cake inside their glass case.
The worst thing about it, thought Sarah as she sat in the doctors office...was how NORMAL it all felt. She and her fellow cheerleaders were sitting in rows and eating snacks and cadies from the vending machine. Sarah noticed that they were all rather sloppy about it, and in the mirror she could see a swollen, blubbery girl in a huge hospitol smock eating her fourth candybar - chocolete smeared at the corners of her mouth and on her chin - and though she could remember being skinny and athletic...she just couldn't imagine being that way again. Oh, she WANTED to lose weight...but the hard work and dicipline that it would take was utterly beyond her. Better to walk then run...and better to sit than walk.
The doctors who examined the seven girls (Gladys Brewer had been brought in as well) were at first disbeleaving about the insane sounding tales of spontanious weightgain and loss. Eventually, enough parents and family doctors were spoken to (and footage of the changes from the school security cameras were shown) that they accepted that the changes had happened as described. Still, as shocking as the sudden gaining of nearly 300+ lbs each had been...the mental changes were even more interesting.
The Cheerleaders all remembered being slim and healthy. They also desperatly WANTED to be that way again...but none of them seemed to understand HOW to do it. When left in a room with a variety of junkfoods, they waddled to the table of chips, cakes and candies and started eating. Six swollen, blubbery girls ate the food, and though all seemed disgusted with themselves...that soon passed, and they simply surrendered to their desires and gorged untill the food was physicaly removed from the room. As the interns gathered the food, the six girls at first begged them not to...then tried to physicaly stop them from doing so.
The reverse of this was seem with Gladys Brewer. The former fattest-girl-in-school had no desire for any of the offerings, and when asked what she'd like to eat...she said with a slightly puzzled look "Can I have a slice of grapefruit?"
"Would you like suger on that?"
"No...but if you have any Sweet & Low, I'd take that."
The six cheerleaders obviously disliked Gladys, but none of them seemed to have the strength of will to confront the girl. Instead they muttered and snarked about her while they ate, and when Gladys finally grew tired with their actions and snapped "Do you cows have something to say? If so, say it to my face!" the six girls...shut up and grew silent. It was as if they'd all lost their self confidence...and Gladys had aquired it.
Gladys was in school the next week, and seemed to be a changed person. She dressed in cheap, thrift store clothes (her family was poor) but she wore them well and had aquired an eye for color and fashion. Her once limp and lifeless hair was now a glowing mane of chestnut waves, and she even wore makeup. When confronted by a few people who seemed to blame her for what had happened to the cheerleaders, she stood her ground. It didn't last long, though...as the new Gladys fit in with the popular crowd as if she'd been born to it. Within a few days, she had filled the void left by Sarah McMillan.
Jon and Karyn watched Gladys grow into her new position, and even join the new Cheerleading squad. But what they were really waiting for...
A few days later...Sarah McMillan returned to the school. Embarassed and not willing to let old friends see them again, the other five cheerleaders had transfered to different schools and were in the process of fitting neatly into the local social structure...as the fattest girls in their new schools. But Sarahs parents were unwilling to let her give up that easily. They tried to buy her clothes that would at least not look comical on her swollen body, but Sarah just had no fashion sense. In fact, she'd become a mental mirror of the old Gladys Brewer. When allowed to pick her own clothes she always went for huge, baggy clothes that obscured her body...and almost her gender. Dressed in dark blue sweatpants and a red hoodie that made her look like a swollen baloon, she puffed and waddled through the halls of the school she'd once ruled. She wore no makeup and had cut her limp, dishwater blond hair into a sloppy pageboy. When Gladys saw her she was torn between wanting to say something nice...but didn't want to be seen talking to her.
When Karyn saw her, she couldn't even think of it as justice. Granted, Sarah had been a major bitch, but this was going too far. She watched Sarah as she sat alone at a table in the corner, not even looking up from her platter of food to notice that Biff was now sitting with Gladys. She simply ate and buried her face in a romance novel...and Karyn just couldn't leave her alone like that.
"Welcome back, Sarah." she said, as she set her tray down at Sarahs table. Sarah flinched, then muttered a barely audible "hi" as she shoveled in another mouthful of roast beef hash, then looked down again. Karyn reached out and took the book from her, and instead of snapping or arguing...Sarah quietly started to cry. Overcome with emotion, Karyn took the obese girl in her arms, and Sarah broke down entirely and started to bawl like a child against her. Karyn said, "Oh, Sarah...I wish I could help you..."
Then...everything was back to normal...sort of. Sarah - just as fat and still wearing her unflattering clothes - sat at the table, eating and chatting with Karyn. And Karyn...Karyn was even FATTER than Sarah!
Karyn looked down and gasped at the sight of herself. A great, swollen mass of blubbery girlhood. She guessed she was at least a 100+ lbs. larger than Sarah...and her clothes had become a floral-print muumuu-style dress that made her look like a parade float. She looked down and saw...a platter of food that was at least TWICE the volume of Sarahs own.
She was suddenly overcome with hunger, and she started to shovel the (delicious) food into her mouth. She hardly chewed the food as she gorged, and a glance at the mirrored lunchroom walls showed...that her hair was still blond, but now worn in an unflattering updo that showed off her heavy lowls and chins. She also wore too much makeup, and several lbs of ugly, plastic costume jewelery. She looked like some cartoonists idea of a fat girl, and she realized that somehow...she'd been affected by her wish! She'd wanted to help Sarah, and she had...because NOBODY was looking at Sarah when Karyn was around. She wanted to cry or run (waddle slowly) to Jon for help, but it was beyond her to stop eating when food was around.
Sarah - who still felt terrible about being so large - smiled at Karyn Merlin (a girl the whole school called "Dump Truck" to her face), and was again touched by the girls offer of friendship. Karyn was actually quite nice, once you got past her terrible fashion sense and grotesque size. And besides, at least with Karyn around she wasn't the fattest girl in school.
"Want some fudge I bought before school?" asked Sarah, opening a box she'd had with her. Karyn looked at the offered box, and though she shuddered and looked like she wanted to refuse...she reached out with sausage-thick fingers and took several pieces of the gooey treats. She ate, but when she saw Jon enter the lunchroom she raised a pale, swollen arm and waved to get his attention. As she did, her upper-arm fat wobbled and bounced like a pale jello-mold. Jon looked at her...and seemed to blanch. Still, he came over to har and asked "Yeah, Dump Truck? What's up?" with a casual indifference, as if he didn't really know her.
